Welcome to the TBM Avengers Archive supported by the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum (located near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). You will find detailed information about Grumman Avenger Aircraft used by Forest Protection Limited, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, as well as information regarding Avengers which have been used in New Brunswick in aerial application programs from other parts of Canada and the USA.

This is a history of Forest Protection Limited’s association with some 88 TBM Avenger aircraft used in the spruce budworm aerial spray program, primarily in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. This text is based on my own Web site of the same name and has been compiled from many sources. From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, Avengers were contracted by FPL from all over the United States and Canada. FPL purchased many of those same Avengers in the establishment of its own fleet, which at one time had the most working Avengers flying at any one time in the World. Although FPL’s Avengers were gradually replaced by the AT803, they continued to be used as fire bombers well into the 2000s. The last Avenger left FPL in 2012.

I’ve just revised the CF-KCM page by adding some USN and RCN record cards kindly supplied by Noah Stegman Rechtin, a Museum Attendant at the Tri-State Warbird Museum in Batavia, Ohio, which has owned this Avenger since 2004.

I’ve just completed a major overhaul of the site, with every page visited. Many minor edits were completed, and a few images added (and a couple deleted). All links were checked and confirmed (or updated) and links to Aerial Visuals were added to each Avenger history page. I am waiting for Library and Archives Canada to send me accident reports from prior to 1991. There are several other tasks on my list, but that’s going to be it for quite a while! Next task in the New Year: the Stearman sister site.

I’ve made numerous minor changes to the history pages of this TBM site, including correcting typos and checking links. Next to tackle will be the individual aircraft pages, which I hope to do in the next week or two. Cheers from New Brunswick, and I hope all of you continue to enjoy this history archive.

I’ve just added some new images and updates to several U.S. and Canadian Avengers. Most come from images posted to the Facebook sites TBM’s – Mil & Civ and Forest Protection Alumni.

FBEF A new and better crash image.FBQT / N7858C Early images of N7858C as #85.FIMI #601 An image of FIMI dropping retardant in B.C. in the early 1960s.GLEN / N3249G An image and a story of Johnson #A14 N3249G in Spearfish, ND, in 1959, while at the Deadwood fire.GLEP #A11 / N7014C The same story and image as for N3249G plus a very nice image of Ray Greene flying N7014C, posted by his son James.GLEQ #A7 An image of the wreck sitting upright in the river, from James Greene.

I hope you all are enjoying this TBM Avenger Archive. It’s a lot of work, but I still plan to make minor tweaks here and there.

Recently I have been haunting the Provincial Archives New Brunswick here is Fredericton. I came across some crash images of CF-KCG, Conair #615, which I have posted to its aircraft page.

Also, a mystery has been solved! FZTR and FZTS: The Mystery page, which now reads SOLVED! Barry McLeod had alerted me to a very interesting page run by the Stoltzfus family of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, who had purchased four Avengers in 1957. After a series of emails regarding N7028C and N4173A, Ken Stoltzfus decided to order the Certificate of Registration for N4173A. The previously unknown BuNo was finally revealed as 85904 and the BuBo for N7028C was confirmed as 53775.

I have just completed a major overhaul of the site, which took considerable effort and time. Several new pages have been added, and many new images were added (as well as some removed). The site is well regarded at the Forest Protection Limited Alumni and Military and Civil TBMs Facebook sites, and many members have contributed images and opinions. This site has been expanded considerably to include spray and fire bomber companies from the western USA — the previous owners of the TBMs that sprayed in New Brunswick.

In a recent post to TBMs – Mil & Civ, I urged members to research the Avenger companies in their own regions, which means this site may expand beyond its original scope of just New Brunswick. We will see what happens.